I'm planning on writing a book at some point, so this is a place to dump some ideas for what I will talk about. From this I will probably flesh the chapters out into a blog, but work gets in the way of things.
For the man who thinks for himself becomes acquainted with the authorities for his opinions only after he has acquired them and merely as confirmation of them, while the book philosopher starts with his authorities, in that he constructs his opinions by collecting together the opinions of others: his mind then compares with that of the former as an automon compares with a living man
— Arthur Schopenhauer
J. R. R. Tolkien
The Silmarillion is the book to which the Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit owe their lineage. Tolkien was a great admirer of language, and he invented the realm of Middle Earth partly as a setting for the invention of new dialects he created. It encompasses the ages of...